David Manson is a Peabody Award-winning American film and television producer, screenwriter and director.

He is perhaps best known for having executive-produced and co-created (with playwright Bill Cain

Bill Cain

Bill Cain is an American playwright.Cain founded a Shakespeare company in Boston.His play, Equivocation was produced at City Center in New York City in March, 2010.The New York Times praised Cain's "impish humor."-References:...

), the acclaimed drama Nothing Sacred

Nothing Sacred (TV series)

Nothing Sacred is an American drama series that aired from 1997 to 1998 on ABC. The series was created by a Jesuit priest named Bill Cain and producer David Manson.-Synopsis:...

 (1997), and developed and executive-produced Birdy

Birdy (film)

Birdy is a 1984 American film directed by Alan Parker and starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. It is based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton.- Synopsis :...

 (1984), winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Early life

Manson was born in New York City to two musicians who had met as students at the Juilliard School. His father, Eddy Manson, a harmonica virtuoso, moved the family to Los Angeles in 1965 to pursue his career as a film composer.

Manson attended the University of California at Santa Cruz on full scholarship before transferring to the University of California at Irvine, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Career

Manson began his career in the theater and worked in various capacities for such venues as the Mark Taper Forum, Playwrights Horizon and the Manhattan Theater Club.

He started in the film business at Dick Berg’s Stonehenge Productions where he produced his first film, The Spell (1977), for NBC, at the age of twenty-four. As Senior Vice President of Stonehenge, he produced several movies and miniseries including the first major television miniseries about Vietnam, A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War (miniseries)

A Rumor of War is a 1980 television miniseries, based on the 1977 autobiography by Philip Caputo about his service in the United States Marine Corps in the early years of American involvement in the Vietnam War...

 (1980), which the New York Times called ‘unusually ambitious and admirable’ and the Washington Post referred to ‘as true as a movie is going to get’.

In 1980, Manson formed his own company, Sarabande Productions, aimed at creating a platform for prestigious writers. He has since worked with Pulitzer Prize winners including Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....

, Donald Margulies

Donald Margulies

Donald Margulies is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University...

 and Jules Feiffer

Jules Feiffer

Jules Ralph Feiffer is an American syndicated cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays...

, and acclaimed screenwriters such as Joan Tewkesbury

Joan Tewkesbury

Joan Tewkesbury is an American film and television director, screenwriter, producer and actress. She had a long association with Robert Altman, writing two of his most acclaimed films, Nashville and Thieves Like Us...

, Barbara Turner, John Sacret Young

John Sacret Young

John Sacret Young is an author, producer, director, and screenwriter primarily in television. Young has been nominated for seven Emmys and seven Writers Guild of America Awards, winning two WGA Awards....

, and National Book Award recipient Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson

Denis Hale Johnson is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son and his novel Tree of Smoke , which won the National Book Award. He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction.- Biography :...

.

In features, he executive-produced Birdy

Birdy (film)

Birdy is a 1984 American film directed by Alan Parker and starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. It is based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton.- Synopsis :...

 (1984) starring Matthew Modine

Matthew Modine

Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...

 and Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

. He then produced the Sting documentary, Bring on the Night

Bring on the Night (film)

Bring on the Night is a 1985 documentary film, directed by Michael Apted, which focuses on the jazz-inspired project and band led by the British musician Sting during the early stages of his solo career. Some of the songs, whose recording sessions are featured in the film, appeared on his debut...

 (1985), directed by Michael Apted, which earned a Grammy Award for best long form video; he also executive-produced The Cemetery Club

The Cemetery Club

-Plot:Based on the play by Ivan Menchell, this drama concerns three friends, Doris , Lucille , and Esther . All three live in the same Jewish community in Pittsburgh, are in their mid-to-late 50s, and have become widows within the past few months...

 (1993), starring Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...

, and produced the Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore

Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

 film, Mad Love

Mad Love (1995 film)

Mad Love is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Antonia Bird and starring Chris O'Donnell, Drew Barrymore and Matthew Lillard. The screenplay was written by Paula Milne. The original music score is composed by Andy Roberts.- Synopsis :...

 (1995), both for Touchstone Pictures where his company was housed for several years.

In addition to its overall feature deal with Touchstone, Sarabande has also inked television deals with Disney, MGM/UA, New Line, Sony and 20th Century Fox.

Through the 1980s and 90s, Manson, through Sarabande, executive-produced a number of television movies, including Rising Son (1990) starring Matt Damon

Matt Damon

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...

 in his first major role, the Christopher Award-winning NBC film, Eye on the Sparrow (1987), and Nightjohn

Nightjohn (film)

Nightjohn is a story about a young slave girl who lives a hopeless life on a Southern plantation. Her job is to take care of the white family’s son as well as spitting tobacco on the roses to keeps bugs away. However, her life is changed when she is taught how to read by a fellow slave...

 (1996), directed by Charles Burnett

Charles Burnett

Charles Burnett may refer to:*Charles Burnett , American film director*Charles Burnett , Scottish Officer of Arms*Charles Burnett , Royal Air Force officer and Australian Chief of the Air Staff...

, which was the recipient of a Special Citation Award from the National Society of Film Critics and which The New Yorker named the best American movie of the year.

Manson entered into the series business as co-creator/executive producer of Against the Law

Against the Law

Against the Law is an American dramedy television series that aired on the Fox network from September 23, 1990 to April 5, 1991. Starring Michael O'Keefe and Suzzanne Douglas, the 17 hour-long episodes centered on the brash Boston lawyer, Simon MacHeath, who left his job at a prestigious law firm...

 (1990) for FOX and made his directorial debut with Those Secrets (1992) for ABC, which he also executive-produced.

He then co-created, produced, and directed the controversial drama, Nothing Sacred

Nothing Sacred (TV series)

Nothing Sacred is an American drama series that aired from 1997 to 1998 on ABC. The series was created by a Jesuit priest named Bill Cain and producer David Manson.-Synopsis:...

 (1997), about an irreverent Catholic priest, which was the subject of an advertiser boycott instituted by the conservative pressure group, The Catholic League. The series won not only the Peabody Award, but also a Humanitas Award, the Writers Guild Award, and the Viewers for Quality Television Founders Award.

Later in the 90s, Manson also produced several films with his wife, writer/producer Arla Sorkin Manson, including the CBS telefilm, The Wedding Dress (2001). He also executive-produced two films for TNT: Thicker Than Blood (1998) with Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....

, based on Bill Cain’s award-winning play, Stand-Up Tragedy; and Baby (2000), starring Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...

 and Keith Carradine

Keith Carradine

Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor who has had success on stage, film and television. In addition, he is a Golden Globe and Oscar winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting "dynasty" that began with his father, John Carradine.-Early life:Keith...

, for which Manson received a Writers Guild nomination for his adaptation.

After 2000, Manson focused more on writing and executive-producing television series. He served as a consulting producer/writer on the hit HBO series, Big Love

Big Love

Big Love is an American television drama that aired on HBO between March 2006 and March 2011. The show is about a fictional fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy...

 (2006), exec-produced and wrote the FX series, Thief (2006) starring the Emmy Award winning Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Thomas Searles in the film Glory, as the fiery detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993 to 1998 and again in the 2000 made-for-TV film Homicide: Life on the Street, and as Owen Thoreau Jr...

, and created, wrote, directed and exec-produced the EMT drama, Saved

Saved (TV series)

Saved is a medical drama television series, which was broadcast on Turner Network Television in 2006. The series was created by David Manson....

 (2006), for TNT.

Manson was the writer/show-runner of the FOX series New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam (TV series)

New Amsterdam is an American television drama, which premiered March 4, 2008 on Fox, and ended after its eighth episode.-Premise and plot:...

 (2008), was consulting producer/writer on the NBC series, Life (2009), and directed multiple episodes of Law & Order, Criminal Intent (2009). He is currently executive-producing a pilot for FX, Outlaw Country (2011), starring Mary Steenburgen

Mary Steenburgen

Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...

 and John Hawkes

John Hawkes (actor)

John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...

.

Name	TV/Film	Year	Position	Awards	|
Outlaw Country	TV	2011	Executive Producer
Damages	TV	2011	Consulting Producer
Law & Order: Criminal Intent	TV	2009	Director
Life	TV	2009	Consulting Producer/Writer
New Amsterdam	TV	2008	Executive Producer/Writer
Saved	TV	2006	Creator/Executive Producer/Writer/Director
Thief	TV	2006	Executive Producer/Writer
Big Love	TV	2006	Consulting Producer/Writer
John Doe	TV	2003	Consulting Producer/Writer
The Wedding Dress	Film	2001	Executive Producer
Baby	Film	2000	Executive Producer/Writer	Writers Guild Nomination, Christopher Award
Mind Games	Film	1998	Executive Producer
Thicker Than Blood	Film	1998	Executive Producer	ALMA Award
Nothing Sacred	TV	1997–1998	Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Writer/Director	Peabody Award, Humanitas Award, Producers Guild Nomination, Viewers for Quality Television: Founders Award
Nightjohn	Film	1997	Executive Producer	National Society of Film Critics: Special Citation
Mad Love	Film	1995	Producer
Original Sins	Film	1995	Executive Producer
The Cemetery Club	Film	1993	Executive Producer
Those Secrets	Film	1992	Executive Producer/Director
Against The Law	TV	1990–1991	Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Writer
Rising Son	Film	1990	Executive Producer
Eye on the Sparrow	Film	1987	Executive Producer	Christopher Award
The King of Love	Film	1987	Executive Producer
Bring On the Night	Film	1985	Producer	Grammy Award: Best Long Form Video
Birdy	Film	1984	Executive Producer	Cannes Film Festival: Special Jury Prize
Best Kept Secrets	Film	1984	Producer
Sessions	Film	1983	Producer
A Rumor of War	TV	1980	Producer
The Word	TV	1978	Producer
A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story	Film	1978	Producer
Night Cries	Film	1978	Producer
The Spell	Film	1977	Producer